Google Says Government User Info Requests Jump 120 Percent Since 2009

By Todd R. Weiss |
Posted 2014-03-30

Government requests for information about users in criminal investigations have risen by more than 120 percent since 2009 when Google began tallying such figures, according to the latest global transparency report issued by the company.

"Though our number of users has grown throughout the time period, we're also seeing more and more governments start to exercise their authority to make requests," Richard Salgado, legal director of law enforcement and information security at Google, wrote in a March 27 post on the Google Official Blog.

The latest Google transparency report, which is the ninth such document issued by the company since it began publishing such statistics, details the number of government requests that Google received for user information in criminal investigations during the second half of 2013.

According to the report, Google received 10,574 such requests from the United States government during the period and provided at least some information in 83 percent of those cases.

France made the second-highest number of requests in the period—2,750—of which 51 percent were at least partially fulfilled.

Germany had the third-highest number of requests at 2,660, of which 40 percent were fulfilled.

The total number of requests for information for governments around the world was 27,477, of which 64 percent were at least partially granted, according to the report.

"We consistently push back against overly broad requests for your personal information, but it's also important for laws to explicitly protect you from government overreach," wrote Salgado. "That's why we're working alongside eight other companies to push for surveillance reform, including more transparency. We've all been sharing best practices about how to report the requests we receive, and as a result, our Transparency Report now includes governments that made less than 30 requests during a six-month reporting period, in addition to those that made 30+ requests."

As part of the latest transparency report announcement, Google has also created a video to explain how the company responds to search warrants in the U.S., after hearing many requests for more information about the process, wrote Salgado. "We apply the same rigorous standards presented in this video to every request we receive, regardless of type."

Google publishes the reports to help users around the world know when and how governments request user information online, he explained.